 Front yard as produce stand. It was a glorious spring day in the Bay Area today, enough to work through that lost hour of sleep. We are going to enjoy this lovely week of darn-near perfect weather. Meatless Monday--Breakfast for dinnerChard picked from the garden this afternoon sauteed with garlic, onions, grape tomatoes, a shot of balsamic vinegar, sunny-side up eggs and Parmesan cheese. Inspired by a recipe on Pinterest, and eaten with a side of toasted asiago bread. Unanimous household approval.Any ideas for a catchy name for this would be most welcome.TuesdayCrock Pot Kalua Pig. I have a rare night meeting, so this will be ready for the kids and hubby. All they need to do is cook rice and make a salad. And then eat ice cream.
WednesdayChicken Fajitas Nachos, using leftover chicken, vegetables grilled by the husband on Sunday. He used a pre-made spice rub for the chicken, plus a lime. With guacamole with avocados from a friend, salsa and sour cream. Might be Meatless ThursdayPad Thai, yet again. Possibly bypassing the chicken and using only tofu. I'm still looking for a tamarind paste-less version and I have two more options Pinterest to consider. FridayPretty Much My Mother-in-Law's Corn Chowder. It's supposed to be 72 degrees of Friday, but I'm craving a good soup. BonusSoccer season is starting, so it's very important to keep *lots* of food in the house. Here are the teenager-approved items for the week.
Jello MochiJello is on sale at Safeway this week. I'm trying fruit punch, cherry lemonade and mango. Except for the color, I'm pretty sure it's all going to taste like "sweet". Li Hing Kettle Korn. Trader Joe's kettle korn tossed with li-hing powder. I eat this 'til my fingers are vermilion. Homemade Pork Sausage. Time to re-stock.Frozen green onion pancakes and eggs. My son has been going through packages green onion pancakes and cartons of eggs. Best of all, he can make them himself. Have a great week!
 Hapa is the Hawaiian word for ‘part’ or ‘half’ and usually refers to someone of mixed ethnicity. Unlike the ugly derogatory “half-breed” or “Mudblood” for Harry Potter fans, hapa is a positive moniker. Hapa kids, especially in Hawaii, are typically perceived as having the best of both worlds—particularly their good looks or names that honor their combined heritage--Tyler Kainalu, Melody Haruka or Kawika Johnson (really!).
And it is a growing demographic. Check out Everything Hapa for more information. Keanu Reeves, Tia Carrere, Apolo Ohno, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Kariya, Sean Lennon, Cheryl Burke, Devin Setoguchi, Bruno Mars, Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park), Kelly Hu, Tiger Woods and some guy named Barack Obama are all hapa. This makes for diverse families, and by extension, diverse food. Amazing combos that are squarely cross-cultural. We should thank our lucky hapa stars for this goodness. In honor of Hapa Day, here are some of my favorites.  Spam mmmMusubiRice, nori (dried seaweed) and Spam. Nothing remotely Japanese about Spam. And there is no way you can make musubi using Uncle Ben’s. But spam musubi is marvy--a beloved go-to item at potlucks, graduation parties and beach trips. Mochi Ice CreamSheer genius to the family who figured to swap out the traditional azuki or kuri in the mochi with ice cream. Not exactly good for the many lactose-intolerant Asians, but delicious anyhow.
 Peanut Butter Beer Miso ChickenThank you Sam Choy for this odd yet ono combo. Coconut Butter MochiCoconut, butter and mochiko (sweet rice flour) come together and play nicely in this sticky chewy goodness of a dessert. Sushi VariationsI'm certain that avocado, cream cheese, and lox are not traditional sushi ingredients. To be fair, these are named California and Philadelphia rolls, but still, you get the idea. Unlikely mixing improves the original concept
 Furikake Chex Mix & Hurricane PopcornBest. Snacks. Possibly Ever. Teri-beef SandwichesSweet/salty/juicy teriyaki meat on a hamburger bun slathered with with mayonnaise, plus lettuce, sweet onion and tomatoes. Drippy goodness. Li-hing Anything
Shave ice, apples, barbecue sauce, high-concept Alan Wong's vinaigrette salad dressing. It’s all awesome. Celebrate your inner-hapa! Eat Well. Be Well.
What's better way to celebrate the 4th of July than with your ohana on a golf/swim/potluck and a picnic/ fireworks/lawn concert? It's going to be a great weekend.
 3rd of July Golf and swim potluck f or about 10 peopleBBQ pork sliders on King's sweet rolls with lettuce and tomato Amped-up macaroni and cheeseWon bok coleslawChilled cantaloupe and plums (perfectly in-season now!) Berries or plums, fresh whipped cream and sponge cake from Kee Wah BakeryWatermelon shave ice or take 2 on lychee/lemonade shave iceIced sun tea and mint water (something new)
 4th of July--Happy Birthday USAPicnic originally for 14, up to 25 so far. The more the merrier. For quite a few years now, we've organized an ohana-style potluck picnic. We lounge, 'talk-story,' eat, listen to the San Francisco Symphony pops concert, eat, talk-story some more, watch the fireworks and have desserts. Great memories and killer recipes always come from this picnic. Bul-go-gi and grilled chicken apple sausages (Aidell's) Pasta or couscous salad Winter wheat berry salad or corn salad Spinach/orzo salad King eggrolls Yaki musubi and inari sushi Tomato salad and possibly sesame green beans French brownies and coconut butter mochiCantaloupe or watermelon Red and blue finger jello and assorted chips/crackers/cheese Celebrate the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.Eat Well. Be Well.
 Kinako, coconut and azuki mochi Wikipedia says mochi is "a Japanese rice cake made out of steamed glutinous rice that is pounded into a paste and then molded into shape." Described like that, who on earth would want to such a thing?! My turn. Mochi is a velvet soft, smooth dumpling made from Japanese sweet rice (mochi-kome)--a sticky, chewy, sweet-goodness of a snack. And distinct from Japanese mochi--decidedly modern, distinctly American and of course, a little Hawaii thrown in. My happy confluence of mochi started yesterday in San Jose Japantown. Number 1: I ended up at Shuei-do, the venerable mochi/manju store. And score! Coconut mochi, and azuki and kinako manju were still available at 3:30 pm! Usually this place sells out by noon.
Number 2: It's Mochi-tsuki at the Buddhist Church. This is one of the most important Japanese New Year's traditions. We have 5 trays of perfectly formed plain mochi (no flavor and no filling). Plain mochi can be eaten dumpling-style in soup, or just slightly pan fried. The outside just turns a bit brown and crunchy, it swells up and it is then drizzled with shoyu and a bit of sugar. The is known as the Breakfast of Champions in our house.
 Mom's strawberry mochi--made by my niece Finally, number 3: Checking the Feeding My Ohana Facebook page, someone today asked about mochi and its cousin manju. And I sadly (and unintentionally) overlooked a request for a mochi recipe. Bad, bad me--don't I know the power of social media?? So anyway, here are 2 of my favorite mochi recipes--both from mom. Click here for Jello Mochi--The color and flavor comes from Jello. Instead of cooking/pounding mochi rice, use mochiko (mochi flour, found in the Asian/Hispanic food aisle). And don't use grape jello, not because of taste, but because this will look like concrete. Stick to orange strawberry. Click here for Coconut Butter Mochi--Japanese/Hawaii hybrid. I adore this. Not as sticky as normal mochi, but a good sturdy custard-ey texture. Perfect comfort food as we start the dash toward Christmas and New Year's.
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